Longhorn Pride Stays Strong at the State Fair

By Rose Cahalan in Blog, Special on October 15, 2012 at 11:09 am | No Comments

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While the outcome of Saturday’s Red River Rivalry wasn’t quite what we wanted, it didn’t snuff out the UT spirit of fans at the State Fair of Texas on Sunday.

With 2.6 million annual visitors, the Dallas fair is one of the nation’s largest—and so is everything about it, from the 212-foot Ferris wheel to the world’s biggest talking cowboy statue (the beloved Big Tex, whose boots are size 70). And as countless fairgoers have discovered, you haven’t truly lived until you’ve tasted a deep-fried bacon-wrapped cinnamon roll.

So it’s fitting that like everything at the fair, school spirit is also present in a big way. Long after the TX-OU gridiron battle was over, burnt-orange gear was still visible everywhere, from families with matching T-shirts—”It helps us stay together in the crowd,” noted one parent—to Longhorn-themed carnival game prizes.

Stuffed Bevos, Texas basketballs, and enormous bulldogs in UT jerseys were among the fair’s most popular novelty items, second only to a Rastafarian banana.

When asked who he rooted for, an employee manning a basketball game booth pointed at the orange-and-white balls without a moment’s hesitation. “I’m from Minnesota, but that’s my team,” he said. “Yesterday wasn’t the best, but that will always be my team.”

Tags: Big Tex, Hook 'em donut, Hook 'em Horns hand sign, red river rivalry, state fair of texas, Texas pride